Thread 56 – Covid GCSE Cohort – Spring 26 – Yr 4 Uni and Graduates

[crazycrofter]

The old thread has filled up and no one noticed - I think we're missing @oblomov26 sharp eyes!

I've tried to tag in everyone I can think of, but apologies to anyone I've missed!
@shimy @endlessdistraction @justherewithmypopcorn @mummyinbeds @aslockton @oubliettebravo @craggyrat @anothernewname460 @ealingwestmum @ewwsprouts @seeline @piggywaspushed @nctdn @icanbewhatiwant @comefromaway @heifer @kingscotestaff @delphigirl @zebracat @cantonet @socks1107 @blinkbonny @anneofcleavage

Meanwhile ds is due to go to Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday. Travel passes are required for all the border regions, which he only applied for last Thursday - and then realised there is a 6-10 working day time frame for processing. He needs to pick them up in the first city he's staying in, which he's supposed to be leaving on Friday. It's unlikely they'll have come by then 😟I'm really not sure what he can do; camp out at the embassy, or wherever they issue them? All his friends did it in good time of course....

Oh @crazycrofter no one tells you about all this when you have a baby do they? DD has driven me up the wall with a few things this week, aargh.

Nope @EffortlesslyDistracted - I feel like I've had to deal with totally different issues than I would have anticipated, back when they were babies! On a positive note, ds will sort things out himself without panicky calls home - maybe he'll have to stay in the first city a bit longer until the papers arrive. I hope his friends aren't too annoyed with him! I think they know what he's like though....

A slight update is that DS got the/a (not sure how many) prize for the highest marks on his course. The prize ceremony is just after graduation next Thursday! He just did amazingly well - can’t quite believe it.
He’s very humble about it all, which is very ‘him’. I’m hoping that this will put him in good stead for the crappy job market.

@Lentilcakes that's amazing! Well done to your DS! You must be very proud

Amazing @Lentilcakes - well done to your ds!

@OrangeCinnamon Welcome back! Great news on the degree. Hopefully relationship issues will turn a corner soon.

@Lentilcakes Whoop!

Sorry @mummyinbeds congratulations too!

Congrats to @OrangeCinnamon and @Lentilcakes's young people.

We had DD's medal ceremony today and a lovely Naval lunch. We felt incredibly proud. In other news, her 1st boyfriend of 6 months, finished the relationship out of the blue on Friday. So she is now dealing with heartbreak. Her brother is being absolutely lovely and empathetic as he went through similar last year. (Ex GF starts at his workplace next week).

I am very jealous of your DS's trip to Kyrgyzstan @crazycrofter. I would love to visit 'the Stans' after seeing them on Race across the world. However, I have booked Cappadocia (hot air balloons), Konya and Antalya for next Easter.

So much news! Piggy wildly sprinkles panic well dones everywhere!

DS 1 collects odd country trips and he has not as of yet done Kyrgyzstan.

Lovely to have you back cinnamon!

@Aslockton- congrats on the ceremony but commiserations on the heartbreak. It’s horrible to see your children go through it isn’t it? My sympathies all round.

Aw sorry to hear that @Aslockton- dd is in the same boat. It’s hard to watch 😢 Glad you enjoyed the medal ceremony though! Hope ds copes ok when ex starts at work 🤞

Ds has spent £150 on a luxury inflatable sleeping mat for his camping in Kyrgyzstan, which we’re paying for as an early birthday present. I suspect he will quickly tire of the effort involved in blowing it up and deflating it every day 😂 I just slightly inflated it to test it, and am now waiting for it to deflate enough to fit in its bag…

@Aslockton well done to your DD, what a proud moment for you all. Sympathy re heartbreak though, that is really sad. I hope things aren’t too bad for your DS when the ex starts work.

@crazycrofter we used to camp regularly, we ended up with an electric pump, ours ran off the car but wouldn’t be surprised if you can get one that runs off a power bank now, maybe he'll do something like that.

The medal ceremony must have been amazing @Aslockton and commiserations on the breakup. I hope your DS gets on okay with the ex at work. Still waiting for hospital records here for DS and the Army.. !

My firm has now officially been taken over. It's been very emotional this week as a huge amount of redundancy people have begun to leave- some have done many years there and our firm was over 130 years old. All just very sad

@OrangeCinnamon - welcome back! Sounds like your DD has done amazingly well despite all the issues. Well done to her.

Just back from a short break to Ghent, with DH celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. It made us realise how little time we spend on ourselves - it's always as a family or spent on one of the DCs. Even at 24 and 22 they still need time and effort from us. It gets exhausting times.

@Seeline Ghent is lovely isn't it, we went as a family a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. I agree about the ongoing exhaustion, since DD came back I have been taxiing her all over the place (that will largely stop after this week as she's got a job in walking distance of home thank goodness) and they both seem to just suck up what's left of my spare time when my mum doesn't need me. I hardly seem to see DH at the moment.

@craggyrat sympathy re the job situation, this happened in my last job, I had been there 15 years but some had spent their entire careers there, we were laid off in two waves and it was a pretty awful time.

Thanks @EffortlesslyDistracted very strange office vibe today...

Know exactly what you mean @Seeline . DS twice last week forgot he had taken the car with him and had walked home - how on earth do they function as adults?! He really needs to move on with life so we can move on with ours!

@craggyrat - that's brilliant, exactly the sort of thing my DS would do. Except he passed his test over a year ago and hasn't driven since. He has access to DHs car, on the insurance etc, just doesn't like driving. It would be so much easier if he did. Although most lifts involve taking one or other to the main station, where you can't park, so they can't drive and leave the car there....

@craggyrat I came home from work (with DD) yesterday to find DS out and the back door wide open (DH left at the same time as us in the morning and wasn't back, it was DS's day off and he was at home when we all left so it was definitely him).

At work the other day DD phoned me to ask where her NI number was for her new job. When I hung up I sighed and said "I am so looking forward to the day when one of mine can start a new job without ringing me for their NI number" and everyone else said a wholehearted yes, me too.

@EffortlesslyDistracted I've had both of those issues too.. honestly I jist despair sometimes...

We have a "house notebook" where things like NI numbers, wifi password etc are and have been using it since before they were born so it's not as though I have hidden their NI numbers from them, they were written in as soon as we got the letters.

Haha, sympathies all! Mine actually know their NI numbers, but this morning I woke up to find ds' brand new super comfy blow up pillow under the kitchen table... (I dropped him off at his friend's in Birmingham last night - flight at 1pm today). So I did a dash to the airport, where I left it hidden behind a shed outside car park 5... he successfully picked it up half an hour later, when he arrived. Just an hour out of my day!